Another social psychology classic bites the dust – meta-analysis finds little evidence for the Macbeth effect
Screenshot 2018-11-12 12.31.01.png
Figure from Siev et al, 2018. The effect of unethical primes on cleansing preference – positive effect sizes denote greater cleansing preference for the unethical condition than the ethical condition.
By guest blogger Jesse Singal
Perhaps no concept has been more important to social psychology in recent years — for good and ill — than “social primingâ€, or the idea, as the science writer Neuroskeptic once put it, that “subtle cues can exert large, unconscious influences on human behaviour.†This subgenre of research has produced a steady drumbeat of interesting findings, but unfortunately, an increasing number of them are failing to replicate – including modern classics, like the idea that exposure to ageing-related words makes you walk more slowly, or that thinking about money increases your selfishness.
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/11/16/another-social-psychology-classic-bites-the-dust-meta-analysis-finds-little-evidence-for-the-macbeth-effect/
